Ebook PDF Developing Management Skills 9th Edition
Ebook PDF Developing Management Skills 9th Edition
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contents
Preface xix
iNtroductioN 1
suPPlementarY material 15
Diagnostic Survey and Exercises 15
Personal Assessment of Management Skills (PAMS) 15
What Does It Take to Be an Effective Manager? 19
SSS Software In-Basket Exercise 21
1 dEvElopiNg SElf-AwArENESS 37
skill assessment 38
Diagnostic Surveys for Developing Self-Awareness 38
Developing Self-Awareness 38
The Defining Issues Test 38
vii
Cognitive Style Indicator 42
Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale 42
Core Self-Evaluation Scale (CSES) 43
skill learning 44
Key Dimensions of Self-Awareness 44
The Enigma of Self-Awareness 45
The Sensitive Line 45
Understanding and Appreciating Individual Differences 47
Important Areas of Self-Awareness 47
Emotional Intelligence 49
Values 51
Ethical Decision Making 57
Cognitive Style 59
Attitudes Toward Change 61
Core Self-Evaluation 63
summarY 65
skill analYsis 67
Cases Involving Self-Awareness 67
Communist Prison Camp 67
Computerized Exam 69
Decision Dilemmas 70
skill Practice 72
Exercises for Improving Self-Awareness Through Self-Disclosure 72
Through the Looking Glass 72
Diagnosing Managerial Characteristics 73
An Exercise for Identifying Aspects of Personal Culture: A Learning Plan
and Autobiography 75
skill aPPlication 77
Activities for Developing Self-Awareness 77
Suggested Assignments 77
Application Plan and Evaluation 78
viii Contents
2 MANAgiNg StrESS ANd wEll-BEiNg 85
skill assessment 86
Diagnostic Surveys for Managing Stress and Well-Being 86
Managing Stress and Well-Being 86
Social Readjustment Rating Scale 86
Social Readjustment Rating Scale 88
Sources of Personal Stress 89
Flourishing Scale 90
skill learning 90
Managing Stress and Fostering Well-Being 90
Major Elements of Stress 91
Coping with Stress 92
Managing Stressors 94
Eliminating Stressors 95
Eliminating Time Stressors Through Time Management 95
Eliminating Encounter Stressors Through Community, Contribution, and Emotional Intelligence 100
Eliminating Situational Stressors Through Work Redesign 103
Eliminating Anticipatory Stressors Through Prioritizing, Goal Setting, and Small Wins 104
Developing Resiliency and Well-Being 106
Life Balance 106
Psychological Resiliency 107
Temporary Stress-Reduction Techniques 112
summarY 113
Contents ix
3 SolviNg proBlEMS ANAlyticAlly ANd crEAtivEly 133
summarY 170
x Contents
scoring keYs anD comParison Data 184
How Creative Are You?© 184
Scoring Key 184
Comparison Data 185
Innovative Attitude Scale 185
Comparison Data 185
Creative Style Assessment 186
Scoring Key 186
Comparison Data 186
summarY 214
Contents xi
skill aPPlication 224
Activities For Communicating Supportively 224
Suggested Assignments 224
Application Plan and Evaluation 225
xii Contents
Elements of an Effective Motivation Program 269
Establish Clear Performance Expectations 270
Remove Obstacles to Performance 272
Reinforce Performance-Enhancing Behavior 273
Provide Salient Rewards 281
Be Fair and Equitable 284
Provide Timely Rewards and Accurate Feedback 284
summarY 286
summarY 329
Contents xiii
skill Practice 336
Exercise for Diagnosing Sources of Conflict 336
SSS Software Management Problems 336
Exercises for Selecting an Appropriate Conflict Management Strategy 345
Bradley’s Barn 345
Avocado Computers 346
Phelps, Inc. 346
Exercises for Resolving Interpersonal Disputes 347
Alisa Moffatt 347
Can Larry Fit In? 351
Meeting at Hartford Manufacturing Company 352
xiv Contents
Fostering Engagement 381
Deciding When to Engage Others 382
Deciding Whom to Engage 383
Deciding How to Engage Others 384
Review Of Engagement Principles 386
International Caveats 386
summarY 388
summarY 427
Contents xv
skill analYsis 428
Cases Involving Building Effective Teams 428
The Tallahassee Democrat’s ELITE Team 428
The Cash Register Incident 431
summarY 469
xvi Contents
skill aPPlication 483
Activities for Leading Positive Change 483
Suggested Assignments 483
Application Plan and Evaluation 484
Contents xvii
Module c coNductiNg MEEtiNgS 551
InDex 609
xviii Contents
P r e fa c e
new in this edition
• New to every Chapter Personal Inventory Assessments (P.I.A)
• Chapter 2 now includes a major focus not only on managing stress but also on
how to enhance and encourage well-being.
• Chapter 8 replaces the discussion on “delegation” with a focus on “engagement.”
• Research continues to appear on factors that predict managerial effectiveness
and skillful performance. Therefore, we have updated references, studies, and
examples to enhance each chapter’s currency.
• In an environment filled with instantaneous technology, sound bites of data, and
short attention spans, we have been motivated to shorten each of the book’s
chapters substantially. With these reductions, however, we have maintained the
empirical evidence and the foundational models and frameworks.
• In each chapter, references to video examples found in Pearson’s
tm
MyManagementLab are noted.
Personal Skills
1. Developing Self-Awareness
2. Managing Personal Stress and Well-Being
3. Solving Problems Analytically and Creatively
xix
Interpersonal Skills
4. Building relationships by Communicating Supportively
5. Gaining Power and Influence
6. Motivating Others
7. Managing Conflict
Group Skills
8. Empowering and Engaging Others
9. Building Effective teams and teamwork
10. Leading Positive Change
Consistent with our focus on promoting effective management practice, the ma-
terial in these chapters provides guidance for a variety of contemporary management
challenges, including: “How can I help others accept new goals, new ideas, new ap-
proaches?” “How can I invigorate those who feel outdated and left behind?” “How do I
help the ‘survivors’ of a downsizing pick up the pieces and move on?” “How do I help
people with very different agendas and philosophies work together, especially during peri-
ods of high stress and uncertainty?”
Anyone tempted to dismissively argue that the answers to these questions are “com-
mon sense” would do well to recall Will Rogers’ pithy observation: “Common sense ain’t
common.” In addition, the research reported in the Introduction suggests that, in many
cases, managers’ “common sense” isn’t “good sense.”
The premise of this book and associated course is that the key to effective management
practice is practicing what effective managers—those with “good sense”—do consistently.
“All genuine learning is active, not passive. It is a process of discovery in which the
student is the main agent, not the teacher.” (Adler, 1982)
“Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in a
class listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments, and spilling out
answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past
experiences, apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of
themselves.” (Chickering & Gamson, 1987)
In their classic book, Bonwell and Elson (1991) list seven defining characteristics of active
learning:
1. Students are involved in more than passive listening.
2. Students are engaged in activities (e.g., reading, discussing, writing).
3. There is less emphasis placed on information transmission and greater
emphasis placed on developing student skills.
4. There is greater emphasis placed on the exploration of attitudes and values.
5. Student motivation is increased, especially in adult learners.
6. Students receive immediate feedback from their instructor and peers.
7. Students are involved in higher order thinking (analysis, synthesis,
evaluation).
xx PrefaCe
Our goals in writing this book were to bridge the academic realm of theory and research
and the organizational realm of effective practice and to help students consistently trans-
late proven principles from both realms into personal practice. To accomplish these goals,
we formulated a five-step “active” learning model, described in the Introduction. Based
on the positive feedback we’ve received from teachers and students, we can state with
confidence that the form of active learning pioneered in this book is a proven pedagogy for
management skill mastery.
Watch It
Recommends a video clip that can be assigned to students for outside classroom viewing
or that can be watched in the classroom. The video corresponds to the chapter material
and is accompanied by multiple choice questions that re-enforce student’s comprehension
of the chapter content.
PrefaCe xxi
chapters substantially. With these reductions, however, we have maintained the
empirical evidence and the foundational models and frameworks that distinguish
this book from others on the market. We have maintained the scientific and
scholarly basis for the prescriptions in each of the chapters because, to be effec-
tive managers, students need more substance than found in traditional airport
bookstore advice.
• Research continues to appear on factors that predict managerial effectiveness and
skillful performance. Therefore, we have updated references, studies, and exam-
ples to enhance each chapter’s currency. Whereas many of the classic studies and
foundational investigations remain in the text, you will find many up-dated studies
and examples through the book. This is also the case with exercises, cases, and
assessment instruments.
• In each chapter, references to video examples found in Pearson’s
MyManagementLab are noted. You will want to use these video supplements to
illustrate certain concepts and practices discussed in the chapters. They provide
real examples of management skill practices in the workplace.
xxii PrefaCe
InstruCtor resourCes
At the Instructor Resource Center, www.pearsonhighered.com/irc, instructors can easily
register to gain access to a variety of instructor resources available with this text in down-
loadable format. If assistance is needed, our dedicated technical support team is ready to
help with the media supplements that accompany this text. Visit http://247.pearsoned.
com for answers to frequently asked questions and toll-free user support phone numbers.
The following supplements are available with this text:
• Instructor’s Resource Manual
• Test Bank
• TestGen® Computerized Test Bank
• PowerPoint Presentation
acknowledgments
In addition to the informal feedback we have received from colleagues around the world,
we would especially like to thank the following people who have formally reviewed ma-
terial and provided valuable feedback, vital to the revision of this and previous editions:
PrefaCe xxiii
Richard E. Hunt, Rockhurst College J. Randolph New, University of
Daniel F. Jennings, Baylor University Richmond
Avis L. Johnson, University of Akron Jon L. Pierce, University of Minnesota–
Jay T. Knippen, University of South Duluth
Florida Lyman Porter, University of California–
Roland Kushner, Lafayette College Irvine
Roy J. Lewicki, Ohio State University Lyle F. Schoenfeldt, Appalachian State
Michael Lombardo, Center for Creative University
Leadership Jacop P. Siegel, University of Toronto
Charles C. Manz, University of Charles Smith, Hofstra University
Massachusetts–Amherst Noel M. Tichy, University of Michigan
Ralph F. Mullin, Central Missouri State Wanda V. Trenner, Ferris State
University University
Thomas J. Naughton, Wayne State Ulya Tsolmon, Brigham Young University
University Kenneth M. York, Oakland University
We especially thank our collaborators who adapted the book for the European and
Australian markets as well as those who translated Developing Management Skills into
Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Dutch.
We are grateful for the assistance of many dedicated associates who have helped us
continually upgrade and enhance Developing Management Skills. We wish to acknowledge
our colleague, Jeffrey Thompson, Director of the Romney Institute of Public Management,
Brigham Young University. Jeff has been a valuable collaborator on our recent revisions and
has become a major part of the authoring team.
We would also like to thank Kris Ellis-Levy, Sarah Holle, Rebecca Groves, Meghan
DeMaio, and Judy Leale of Pearson Education. In addition, we’d like to express our gratitude
to Kristin Jobe of Integra-Chicago for her expert assistance with this edition, as well as Erikson
Daniel Conkling, Ivy Tech Community College/Northeast and Linda Hoffman, Ivy Tech
Community College/Fort Wayne for their contributions to the MyLab assessment content.
Finally, and most importantly, we express appreciation to our families for their ongoing
patience and support, which is reflected in their willingness to share their time with this com-
peting “labor of love”—and to forgive our own gaps between common sense and common
practice.
David A. Whetten
Kim S. Cameron
xxiv PrefaCe
ManageMent ConCepts
■ The Critical Role of Management Skills
IntroductIon
■ The Importance of Competent Managers
■ The Skills of Effective Managers
■ What Are Management Skills?
■ Improving Management Skills
■ An Approach to Skill Development
■ Leadership and Management
■ Contents of the Book
■ Organization of the Book
■ Diversity and Individual Differences
■ Summary
suppleMentary
The Critical
Material Role of
■
■
Personal Assessment of Management Skills (PAMS)
What Does It Take to Be an Effective Manager?
SSS Software In-Basket Exercise
Management
Skills
Scoring Key and
coMpariSon Data
Learning
Objectives
1. Introduce the Importance
of management SkIllS
2. IdentIfy eSSentIal
management SkIllS
3. explaIn a learnIng
model for developIng
management SkIllS
4. revIew the contentS of
the Book
1
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Introduction
IntroductIon 3
prescriptions of how one more executive or one more company struck it rich or beat out
the competition. Thousands of books trumpet prescriptions for how to be successful in
business, or in life. Many of these books have made it to the best-seller lists and have
enjoyed lengthy stays.
Our intention in this book is not to try to duplicate the popular appeal of the best-
selling books nor to utilize the common formula of recounting anecdotal incidents of suc-
cessful organizations or well-known managers. We have produced a book that remains
true to, and is based on, social science and business research. We want to share with you
what is known and what is not known about how to develop management skills and
how to foster productive, healthy, satisfying, and growth-producing relationships with
others in your work setting. Developing Management Skills is designed to help you actu-
ally improve your personal management competencies—to change your behavior.
This book, therefore, serves more as a practicum or a guide to effective managerial
behavior than a description of what someone else has done to successfully manage an
organization. It will surely help you think, and it will provide examples of success, but
it will have failed if it also does not help you behave more competently in your own life.
Whereas the skills focused on in this book are called “management skills,” their
relevance is not limited just to an organization or work setting. This book could be
retitled “life skills,” or even “leadership skills.” We focus mainly on work settings here
because our primary goal is to help you prepare for and improve your own competency
in a managerial role. You will discover, however, that these skills are applicable in most
areas of your life—with families, friends, volunteer organizations, and your community.
In the next section, we review some of the scientific evidence that demonstrates
how management skills are associated with personal and organizational success, and we
review several studies of the key management skills that seem to be the most important
in our modern-day environment. It is those key skills that this book has targeted. We
then describe a model and a methodology for helping you to develop management skills.
A large number of fads abound proclaiming a new way to be a leader, get rich, or
both, but our intent is to rely on a proven methodology that has grounding in the scien-
tific literature. We present what has been shown to be a superior process for improving
management skills, and we base our claims on scholarly evidence. This Introduction
concludes with a brief description of the organization of the rest of the book and
the importance of keeping in mind individual differences among people.
4 IntroductIon
A study of German firms in 10 industrial sectors produced similar results:
“Companies that place workers at the core of their strategies produce higher long-term
returns . . . than their industry peers” (Blimes, Wetzker, & Xhonneux, 1997). A study
of five-year survivability in 136 nonfinancial companies that issued IPOs in the late
1980s found that the effective management of people was the most significant factor
in predicting longevity, even when accounting for industry type, size, and profits. Firms
that did a good job of managing people tended to survive; others did not (Welbourne &
Andrews, 1996).
A study by Hanson (1986) investigated the factors that best accounted for financial
success over a five-year span in 40 major manufacturing firms. The five most power-
ful predictors were identified and assessed. They included market share (assuming that
the higher the market share of a firm, the higher its profitability); firm capital intensity
(assuming that the more a firm is automated and up-to-date in technology and equipment,
the more profitable it is); size of the firm in assets (assuming that economies of scale and
efficiency can be used in large firms to increase profitability); industry average return on
sales (assuming that firms would reflect the performance of a highly profitable industry);
and the ability of managers to effectively manage their people (assuming that an emphasis
on good people management helps produce profitability in firms). The results revealed that
one factor—the ability to manage people effectively—was three times more powerful than
all other factors combined in accounting for firm financial success over a five-year period!
We repeat, good management was more important than all other factors taken together in
predicting profitability.
This is just a small sampling of studies that indicate overwhelmingly that good
management fosters financial success, whereas less effective management fosters financial
distress. Successful organizations have managers with well-developed management skills.
Moreover, the data are clear that management skills are more important in accounting for
success than industry, environment, competition, and economic factors combined.
IntroductIon 5
Table 1 Skills of Effective Managers—One Study
1. verbal communication (including listening)
2. managing time and stress
3. rational and creative decision making
4. recognizing, defining, and solving problems
5. motivating and influencing others
6. delegating and engaging others
7. Setting goals and articulating a vision
8. Self-awareness
9. team building
10. managing conflict
6 IntroductIon
that the skills fell into four main groups or clusters. One group of skills focused on par-
ticipative and human relations skills (for example, supportive communication and team
building), while another group focused on just the opposite, that is, competitiveness and
control (for example, assertiveness, power, and influence skills). A third group focused on
innovativeness and individual entrepreneurship (for example, creative problem solving),
while a fourth group emphasized the opposite type of skills, namely, maintaining order
and rationality (for example, managing time and rational decision making). One conclu-
sion from that study was that effective managers are required to demonstrate paradoxical
skills. That is, the most effective managers are both participative and hard-driving, both
nurturing and competitive. They were able to be flexible and creative while also being
controlled, stable, and rational (see Cameron, Quinn, DeGraff, & Thakor, 2014). Our
objective in this book is to help you develop that kind of behavioral competency and
complexity.
IntroductIon 7
Our own experience in teaching complex management skills, as well as research
on management skills development among MBA students (e.g., Boyatzis et al., 1995;
Vance, 1993) has demonstrated that three important modifications are necessary in order
for this model to be most effective. First, the behavioral principles must be grounded in
social science theory and in reliable research results. To ensure the validity of the behav-
ioral guidelines being prescribed, the learning approach must include scientifically based
knowledge about the effects of the management principles being presented.
Second, you must be aware of your current level of skill competency and be mo-
tivated to improve upon that level. Most of us receive very little feedback about our
current level of skill competency. Most organizations provide some kind of annual or
semiannual evaluation (for example, course grades in school or performance appraisal in-
terviews in firms), but these evaluations are usually infrequent and narrow in scope, and
they fail to assess performance in most critical skill areas. To help you understand what
skills to improve and why, an assessment activity must be part of the model.
In addition, most people find change uncomfortable and therefore avoid taking the
risk to develop new behavior patterns. An assessment activity in the learning model helps
encourage you to change by illuminating your strengths and weaknesses. This makes it
possible to target your improvement efforts more specifically. Assessment activities gen-
erally take the form of self-evaluation instruments, case studies, or problems that help
highlight personal strengths and weaknesses in a particular skill area.
Third, an application component is needed in the learning model. Most manage-
ment skill training takes place in a classroom setting where feedback is immediate, and
it is relatively safe to try out new behaviors and make mistakes. Therefore, transferring
learning to an actual job setting is often problematic. Application exercises help to apply
classroom learning to examples from the real world of management. Application exer-
cises often take the form of an outside-of-class intervention, a consulting assignment,
self-analysis through journal writing, or a problem-centered intervention, which you can
analyze to determine its degree of success or failure.
In summary, evidence suggests that a five-step learning model is most effective for
helping you develop management skills (see Cameron & Whetten, 1984; Kolb, 1984;
Vance, 1993; Whetten & Cameron, 1983). Table 2 outlines such a model. Step 1 involves
the assessment of current levels of skill competency and knowledge of the behavioral
8 IntroductIon
Another random document with
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DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.